The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. We feel like that describes MOUZ’ entire schtick pretty well.

They aren’t always first in line, but sneak around the back and put something amazing together nonetheless.

Welp, not this time.

MOUZ saw themselves bested by NiP with a stand-in IGL at the GET Dubai Grand Final. Once again they’re denied a trophy - even if this one wasn’t that valuable.

MOUZ’ road to the final was pretty uneventful. A 2-0 win against the squad of French scene leftovers, Falcons, and another two map win against Movistar Riders who haven’t ever been able to beat this MOUZ lineup. That’s all it took to bring this international roster to the grand final.

But this loss is not just a loss. Not only did they lose to NiP with a stand-in **but this roster under dexter has also failed to achieve at any other big tournament: MOUZ went out last at IEM Dallas, failed to qualify for the Antwerp Major, had a horrific showing at the Stockholm Major, and… Well we could go on.

The only trophies this rendition of MOUZ garnered were at Snow Sweet Snow as well as Flashpoint S3 (lol) and those wins were all with ropz on the team.

Can we just remind everyone that it’s been over a year since this little dexter experiment started? To be fair, we feel bad for the guy.

He’s done his best, coming from an underdeveloped scene, leaving his kids behind to move to Hamburg… but it’s just not working out. Perhaps his IGL leadership strategy of “treat it like a FACEIT game” isn’t covering it anymore.

At this point, best move is to say “thanks for the services rendered, see ya!” and move on.

Or at least that’s what we think, and what do we know… We’re just a bunch of mediocre Counter-Strike players who’d rather watch others do it better than fail miserably ourselves.

We’re going to keep this one brief, ‘cause it’s a nasty story littered with landmines.

What lead to this?

Boombl4 got married to his (now-ex) wife after winning the Major. Which, at the time, seemed romantic; but six months later everything has gone wrong..

Her social media usage kicked up a fuss when she apparently hinted at her support for the Russian war in Ukraine.

Boombl4 apologised for her comments publicly, but recently left NaVi for ‘not in server’ issues; many believed it would be him staying in Russia, but recent events may change that.

So what’s new?

Last week, Boombl4 filed for divorce, and a few videos and images of him surfaced that appeared to show him snorting some substance (alleged to be mephedrone) and in a compromising position.

Boombl4 denied all allegations and suggests he was being blackmailed - including claims that the images and videos were not real.

His now-ex wife claims he has been a long-term drug addict and that he had attacked her and cheated on her several times, including with other men - information that’s only due to Russia’s stance on homosexuality.

Boombl4 has since posted a clean drug test on Twitter in response:

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This story is developing, and a pretty rough one for everyone involved. We recommend you wait for more facts to come out before making up your mind.

If you want a measured take, we highly recommend Richard Lewis’ video on the issue.

Every time things are looking up for Spirit, they fall to the ground.

After a heroic charge at the Major where they fell just short of glory, things finally seemed like they’d settled. After mir left, they promoted Patsi and added s1ren, and finally had found the quintet that was going to take them to where they wanted to be.

Until degster decided to stay in Russia.

Obviously, staying in Russia is not really a feasible idea for any organisation attempting to do… anything. Your players won’t get VISAs, your org will be blacklisted and you’ll go broke.

But it’s also going to be pretty difficult to move out of a country you’ve lived in your whole life just to play a video game.

degster was quick to clarify that it wasn’t for any political reason, but that he couldn’t spend 9 months in Serbia due to his girlfriend and other personal matters. Which is fair enough; you can’t expect everyone to throw their life away to keep playing.

But it does mean that Spirit are down a star AWPer, and need to find a new one.

They’ve been baiting that Patsi will take over as the main AWPer with, presumably, a new rifler signed. One has to wonder why a CIS team would not sign an AWPer, though. Literally every single AWPer who comes out of that region is cracked beyond belief.

Like, there’s w0nderful and deko just chilling waiting to be signed by a bigger team, El1an, Jame, s1mple, m0NESY and degster who’ve all already been there.

We’re sure there’s some great riflers around, but you already have one. He’s called Patsi. Keep him there and sign another one of those ridiculous AWPers off the CIS conveyor belt.

Well, Heroic have won a LAN!

That in of itself is already a surprising turn of events, but they also beat their Danish rivals Astralis to do it. As seen in this video made by Pinnacle, they looked pretty happy about it.

It was an impressive performance by the team, who dominated on both Ancient and Overpass en route to a 2-0 finals victory.

TeSeS and cadiaN both put up incredible performances, earning 1.44 ratings each on Ancient and overall both getting above 1.25 for the series.

But the real issue for Astralis was on their side of the server as blameF who struggled to perform despite winning the tournament MVP. He eked out a positive rating in the series and k0nfig actually looked pretty okay. But it wasn’t enough for them to beat the other Danes.

This win could mark a new age for Heroic, who have struggled on LAN ever since tournaments returned to in-person competitions. A win under their belt, over their native rivals, might be just what they need to get back into top form.

As sjuush remarked after the win in an HLTV interview, “every single victory over Astralis means something, doesn’t matter if it’s the first game in a tournament or a grand final, it’s still the same.”

🔥  Fire CS to watch

• mir’s just joined the team and is already carrying them so hard that they should definitely book a chiropractor.
• If you have no idea what to watch, watch WePlay Academy League. If you have no idea who to watch at WePlay, listen to launders. He’s always right.

🕰️  Players go back in time

• No wonder MSL’s team got flushed in ESEA Open, they’re called Atlantic…
• Apparently nafany and broky go waaaayyy back. We love ourselves a little nostalgia in the morning.

🚨  Shameless daylight robbery

• VALORANT is so unoriginal they even have to steal our mediocre meme-accounts.
• Heroic really did steal blameF’s Pinnacle win didn’t they? Dude put in 200% and still took the L, welcome to 2022 Astralis…